Earlier today, BigTen.org made a quick stop on the Northwestside of Indianapolis, just 20 minutes away from the action at Conseco Fieldhouse, when it saw a resident sporting its Spartan pride. We saw the "Welcome Party" for Michigan State in last night's post, but who knew a little bit of Sparty was here all along?

In a city full of Boilermakers and Hoosiers, it was nice to see Sparty getting some love as well.

Big Ten Champion and top-seeded Michigan State will tip off against No. 8 seed Northwestern in semifinal action tonight at 6 p.m. ET.

For the first time at this year's Big Ten Women's Basketball Tournament, we have a game where one team has really outdistanced itself from another. And who would have believed it to be the No. 11 seed on top?

"And we're going to party like it's 2008," doesn't quite have the ring to it as Prince's "1999" classic, so please don't cue the music.

But this little run by the 11th-seeded Illini does remind us of their BTT journey in 2008. As the No. 9 seed, Illinois played all four days and fell by just two points to Purdue in the tournament final. To date, the Illini are the lowest-seeded team to have ever advanced to semifinals and finals of the Big Ten Tournament.

Counting this year, the No. 11 seed has advanced out of first-round action only three times, with all three of those occasions involving the two teams in this game. No. 11 Minnesota fell to No. 3 Illinois, 98-76, in the 1997 quarterfinals, while 11th-seeded Michigan lost 72-50 to third-seeded Purdue in the 2003 quarterfinals.

Twenty minutes to play, but we think Illinois' Jolette Law is still loving Conseco Fieldhouse!

We are at halftime of today's first game and the No. 7 seed Purdue Boilermakers hold a slim advantage over second-seeded Penn State.

The 2/7 game has taken place 14 times in Big Ten Tournament history with the No. 2 seed owning a 10-4 record.

We saw No. 11 Illinois top No. 6 Wisconsin last night... might we have another "upset" boiling?

Of course we only use the term "upset" for the purposes of tourney talk. Purdue swept the regular-season series against Penn State, including a 51-49 victory in State College on Feb. 24.

By the way, you see "Mingo" in the tweet for having scored 8 points at intermission. That's Drey Mingo, who recently was named a finalist for the V Foundation Comeback Award and has been the subject of several features by the Indianapolis media this week, including NBC's WTHR affiliate and the Indianapolis Star.